Sunday, October 22, 2017

Odds and Ends

Occasionally I examine the page views for this blog by country .
This is an analysis of the last thirty days.Surprisingly the U.K. is much lower than usual and I have no idea why the French readership has dramatically increased.
China is not shown because of its pissing contest with Google.

Entry

Pageviews

United States

3313

France

1274

Spain

403

United Kingdom

398

Russia

367

United Arab Emirates

305

Portugal

189

Brazil

162

Netherlands

147

Germany

135

From the why did I buy this bookplate collection

I spotted this bookplate in Indiana Bookplates by Esther Griffin White.
It is also mentioned here.

"The railroad executive, doctor, and book collector Frank
Graef Darlington of Indianapolis, ordered a bookplate design from Frank
S. Bowers, the famous cartoonist for the
Indianapolis News. Bowers crammed in references to all of
Darlington’s passions (engineering, mining, MIT) and surrounded a
leering skeleton with a python border. Darlington struggled with health
issues most of his adult life (suffering a debilitating
stroke at age thirty-seven) and apparently had a wry sense of his own
mortality. A fellow bibliophile commented that this particular bookplate
was appropriate for Darlington as it held a “hideous and inexplicable
fascination."

Email from blog readers

Fellow Collector Ben Zeckel sent this email

Hi Lew,

I wonder if you might
have any ideas on how to approach researching the identity of the plate
attached - ex libris et musicis Dr. Norbert Rossa by Ludwig Hesshaimer
1933

I have stumbled onto your fascinating blog this morning
while researching an early and interesting bookplate. I wonder if you
might be able to help me learn a little bit more about it.

It’s small and plain, about 2” x 2.5”, with decorative border, name and address.

The address is 266 Arch St, Philadelphia, which of course
is an important central location, & just around the corner from
Franklin’s print shop.

The book is in a copy of Jefferson’s Notes (London 1787)
bound with the 1800 (Philadelphia-printed) appendix, printed by another
Philadelphia printed, Samuel H. Smith.

Before long he sent additional information about Mr.PriestmanPriestman was an English merchant and resident of Baltimore. He is best remembered for amassing a remarkable library and for running afoul of the early US import regulations, resulting in a Supreme Court ruling (against him) and eventual pardon from President Thomas Jefferson.

In 1798 Priestman imported 219 watches from England, paid import tax in Baltimore, and then transported the watches the Philadelphia. Upon arriving in Philadelphia, he failed to report the watches to Philadelphia customs officials. Instead, he set up a stall to sell them -- right next door to the Custom House. Customs inspector Sharp Delany promptly seized them. Priestman sued for their return, but Pennsylvania courts and eventually the Supreme Court both ruled against him. Priestman continued to fight for the return of his watches, “Two hundred and three silver watches, three gold ditto, two enamelled ditto, two hunting ditto, and seven pinchback ditto…” (from Jan 22, 1798 report written by Sharp Delany, in American State Papers, volume 9) through the final years of the Adams administration. In so doing, he contributed money to Thomas Jefferson’s Republicans -- and in 1801, the same year Jefferson assumed the presidency -- Customs inspector Sharp Delany was fired, Priestman was pardoned, and Jefferson ordered the watches returned to him.

According to contemporary assessments, the watches were worth $3,385, which was a fortune at the time.

Priestman’s address (on the bookplate) is 266 Arch Street. The house still stands (there is a Starbucks there). It is at the corner of Arch and N. 3rd Street, directly across the street from Betsy Ross’s house & just around the corner from Benjamin Franklin’s house & printing press. 4.5 blocks to Independence Hall. It is a remarkably prominent location & its proximity to Franklin’s Press raises the question of whether the bookplate might have been printed there. Despite proximity to Franklin’s shop, it’s also worth noting that the Appendix was printed by Samuel H. Smith, another Philadelphia printer & particular friend of Thomas Jefferson. Since it was Smith who published the Appendix & likely bound the two together, it seems more likely that it was Smith who made the bookplate. I have not yet been able to find matching examples of either Smith or Franklin bookplates.

Other Priestman bookplates (mentioned in online listings) give his address at Market and 9th St, about 6 blocks from the Arch St address.

When the Federal Government moved from Philadelphia to Washington in 1800, Jefferson urged Smith to move with it & to set up a print shop in the new City. Smith agreed, and established one of Washington’s first newspapers, “The National Intelligencer.” Smith went on to publish Jefferson’s Parliamentary Manual in 1801. Then in 1813 he was appointed Commissioner of the Revenue and in 1814, briefly, the Secretary of the Treasury (under Madison).

Priestman died in 1830 and is buried at Christ Church in Philadelphia.

Priestman appears to have put together quite an impressive library - many of them are catalogued and identified in the collection of the American Philosophical Library, which bought a number of maps from Priestman in a famous 1831 sale. The correct Jefferson map is not mentioned among them.

Note from Lew

Thank you Paul -

I hope to visit your shop on my next trip to Washington

10/23/2017I received this comment from Carmen Valentino

Lew,

If
Priestman died in 1830, then the 266 Arch St. address was elsewhere
because I believe the street nubers in the city were changed at some
point AFTER 1830. !!